


I Am Here

by PuckPip24601



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:55:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22823665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PuckPip24601/pseuds/PuckPip24601
Summary: The Doctor took in another deep breath. She squared her shoulders as she stepped back from the console then, in one movement, she strolled around it until she was stood in front of them and lowered herself so she sat on the floor in front of them and crossed her legs.“Okay then. Ask me.”The three blinked at her. Shocked that their plan had actually worked.“What?” Ryan had stuttered out and the Doctor seemed to just barely resist the urge to roll her eyes and tossed a hand out in a withering motion.“Ask me. Go ahead. Ask me what you want to know.”
Comments: 6
Kudos: 146





	I Am Here

“What did he mean?” Yaz’s voice was quiet but questioning when she spoke up, her eyes on the Doctor’s small figure which was hunched over the TARDIS console. She watched the other woman tense as she spoke, knew this was going to be a battle of wills to get a straight answer out of her but they were prepared for it. “When he called you the last child of Gallifrey, what did that mean Doctor?”

The Doctor didn’t answer. Not that Yaz truly expected her to. The blonde’s hands went from frantic movements across the console to a slow stop until they gripped the edge of the console as her arms spread out in a wide stance. She took in a deep, heavy, breath, head tilting forward until her hair fell in front of her face best it could with how short it was.

“We ain’t going nowhere until you tell us some kind of truth Doc. Preferably the actual one.” Graham’s voice was soft, but there was a steel to it which told the room that he wasn’t lying to her.

“Yeah Doctor. Please talk to us.” Ryan spoke up last, his tone worried. The three of them sat on the stairs that led further into the TARDIS but they had no desire to head up them. They sat and they watched her and once she realised that they weren’t going to leave she let out another heavy sigh and her shoulders drooped and she looked suddenly like she hadn’t slept in months. And maybe she hadn’t. It wasn’t like any of them knew what she did when they slept. They used to ask. She’d always find a way to brush them off and eventually those questions, like many others, were forgotten about.

“You don’t want to know.” 

“That’s not for you to decide Doctor.” Graham sounded annoyed this time, but he kept his voice quiet, he was trying to be soothing but he was getting rather sick of her deciding what they did and didn’t need to know. “We’re your mates. And yeah okay we haven’t been travelling for thousands of years like you have but who’re you to make decisions for us. You know almost everything about us, you ask questions and we answer them because we’re friends. You don’t extend to us the same curtesy.”

“I take you travelling through time. I think it’s a fair trade.” Her tone was short, she was barely holding back from snapping at them and the three of them try to not take her words to heart too much. She was like a raw nerve right now. Lashing out to protect herself from having to speak about something painful. They’d all had those moments throughout their lives.

“You know that it’s not.” Yaz tried not to sound too dejected but it came through and the Doctor visibly wavered. The silence lasted for another few minutes and no one wanted to break it first. The Doctor hoping that they’d drop it if she just refused to answer and the others not wanting to give her the satisfaction of twisting their words to get out of this. 

The Doctor took in another deep breath. She squared her shoulders as she stepped back from the console then, in one movement, she strolled around it until she was stood in front of them and lowered herself so she sat on the floor in front of them and crossed her legs.

“Okay then. Ask me.”

The three blinked at her. Shocked that their plan had actually worked.

“What?” Ryan had stuttered out and the Doctor seemed to just barely resist the urge to roll her eyes and tossed a hand out in a withering motion.

“Ask me. Go ahead. Ask me what you want to know.”

“Where are you from?” There was a pause again, the Doctor’s gaze dropping to the floor as a sadness filled her eyes that they all recognised but could never place.

“My people are- were called the Time Lords. My planet was called Gallifrey.”

“Was? What happened?” Yaz asked next, gentle in her probing but the Doctor seemed to wince anyway.

“There was a war. A long long time ago. The last great time war. Between my people and the Daleks. And like all wars it grew. It grew until it seemed unstoppable and as it grew innocent planets and the people that lived on them suffered for it. Species were slaughtered into extinction by accident. Entire planets were wiped from the fabric of time and space and it seemed like the fighting would never end. That the entire universe would continue to suffer unless someone did something to stop it. So I did. And for a while.... I thought I was all that was left.”

“You... you killed your own people?” Graham was the first to speak up as she paused, shock and a little bit of horror heard in his words and the Doctor shook her head.

“To save the rest of the universe from total annihilation? I was prepared to. I would have. I did in one time line. But no. No, I figured out another way. I placed my planet in what was essentially a painting. Trapped in a pocket universe and convinced not just the rest of the universe, but myself as well, that they were gone. That I had used the Moment, and wiped them from the universe to save it. That I was the last of my species. The last of my my kind. The last of the Time Lords. Then, centuries later, I remembered. And I got them back and I saved them and for a while, for one glorious moment, I wasn’t alone.”

“Doctor, you said that the war was a long long time ago. He still called you the last child of Gallifrey. You refuse to take us there, refuse to talk about it. Something else happened. What was it?” Yaz leaned forward one of the hands that had been resting on her own knee reaching out in case the Doctor needed to hold her hand and the woman stared at the outstretched limb for a second. Her eyes filled with tears and she took in a breath that was suddenly very shaky and she reached for the hand with a slightly too tight grip before she answered.

“The Master. He found out something about Gallifrey, about something the founders of our species did. Something unforgivable to him. Something to do with the Timeless Child. And he reduced our planet to rubble. And slaughtered anyone he could find until all that was left was me and him. And now I’m alone again. And this time there’s no miracle to save them.”

“You’re not fully alone.” Ryan tried sympathetically after her words finally sank in. “You’ve got us.”

“It’s not the same now is it?” The Doctor’s sad smile still showed her thanks for his attempt to show her compassion. “Now I go back to being just a mad woman with a box. The traveller without a home.”


End file.
